Torino 1 : 0 Parma - Darmian piles misery on Parma

Posted Thursday, October 30, 2014 by PA

Matteo Darmian condemned moribund Parma to a seventh defeat of the young Serie A season.

The Torino and Italy full-back struck early on at the Stadio Olimpico to secure a 1-0 victory for the Granata that leaves Parma rooted to the bottom of the standings with only three points from the nine games they have played.

Coach Roberto Donadoni - with whom the Parma board have displayed rare patience thus far - tried to organise a fightback in the second half but his players could do nothing to prevent the humiliation of a sixth straight loss.

Parma conceded the 21st goal of their calamitous early campaign after just 10 minutes of play in Turin.

Darmian had threatened in the opening exchanges, driving a cross into the box for Parma old boy Amauri, but this time he put himself in a shooting position and beat Antonio Mirante with a smooth right-footed strike.

Torino dominated the rest of the half as Parma struggled to recover from yet another blow to their fragile morale.

Kamil Glik was unlucky not to turn home a header in the 20th minute after connecting well with Omar El Kaddouri's free-kick and Fabio Quagliarella could not quite catch Mirante out when the Parma goalkeeper strayed off his line.

With six minutes to go before the break Quagliarella unleashed a bicycle kick before Amauri swiped at the rebound.

The hosts made sure to recover control of proceedings when play resumed and Quagliarella went close with a shot on turn after cutting inside from the left wing.

He then found the angle of post and bar with a fantastically acrobatic effort in the 50th minute.

Parma rallied and got forward shortly before the hour mark, with Antonio Cassano almost latching onto Jose Mauri's through ball with the home defence scrambling.

The Gialloblu carved out a double chance in the 67th minute. Jean-Francois Gillet did well to parry Afriyie Acquah's snapshot and, in the same move, Andrea Coda missed the mark from a good position near a post.

Even right-back Andrea Rispoli had a shot saved by Gillet as Parma grew in confidence and what could have been the equaliser was chalked off as prospective scorer Andrea Coda committed a foul during the build-up.

Torino had waited patiently and, with six minutes remaining, pushed forward once again to send Quagliarella into a one-on-one with Mirante.

The Parma stopper made a fine save from the former Juventus striker but was relieved to see Juan Sanchez Mino clip the rebounding ball out of play.